Gino D'Acampo Restaurant Quayside Newcastle — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Myself and my partner are frequent users of Gino’s and each time we go we tell ourselves we will give it another chance, which is probably a little silly considering how overpriced it is! First time the food was great, we got the bread for starters and I got the chicken for the main, the service was extremely slow though but it was okay as there was 6 of us. The most recent time, my partner and I got a voucher for the restaurant and decided to use it for our anniversary meal, we were sat next to the bar on low tables and seats, it was extremely loud and we were in a corner where we were clearly forgotten about. The waitress came over after about 15/20 minutes and stood over us not saying anything, my partner and I were extremely puzzled so we just ordered drinks, the waitress clearly had other things on her mind as she leaned over our table whilst asking if we will be having wine, I responded with “yes” she continued to lean over the table staring at the table next to us and grabbing our wine glasses, as I was clearly ignored, I said once again yes we will be having wine. The service was extremely slow and the food was really bland, we got the chateaubriand steak with prawns and it tasted of nothing.

After this we said we weren’t going to go again but we wanted somewhere on the quayside for us and our families who are coming from down the country for New Years Eve, so I booked a table for 6. Not anywhere on the website did it ask for payment or let us know of a set menu or deposit to pay prior. You could choose an option of a Pod outside for £120 each however we weren’t bothered about doing anything extravagant.

Just got off the phone to a lady at Ginos in relation to the booking for New Years Eve. She rang to let me know that they’re having a set menu and it is £120 each…. She also stated that they’ve always done it and she doesn’t understand why the system allowed me to book for a normal reservation, however stated that she’s ringing a lot of bookings to let them know the same. Unlucky for me, I booked this around 2/3 weeks ago now, my family has booked hotels for the night (totalling over £600) as I received confirmation for the booking which are non refundable as it is New Years Eve… They are travelling from across the country. Now that it is a short time until NYE it is impossible to get a booking for ‘nice’ restaurants so late, given they have given us such short notice. The lady apologised but was clearly getting irritated as I was trying to explain that I received confirmation for this and had already made plans with everyone else and no where on the website or pages did it state that there will be a set menu! She ended up just saying “do you want me to cancel it then” with a disgusting attitude. We will never use...

Booked for my daughter's 17th birthday, and we were excited to go given it's got Gino's name above the door and the fab location. We had high expectations. We were sat down on time and the staff were friendly. The restaurant itself is lovely, the decor and finish to a high standard, it certainly feels a bit special and the river Tyne is right there. Both my son and daughter had the hot and spicy pizza and it was delicious as was my wife's pasta, the Arrabiatta, which was cooked to perfection. The pasta portion was really small however and we laughed a bit when it came. There's no excuse for a small portion of pasta since it's so cheap to buy or make; the markup on pasta must be A LOT. I had the burger - very disappointing. It was totally dry and tasteless, not in the least bit juicy and the melted cheese was so thin I couldn't taste it. I've had better burgers at burger king unfortunately. I don't know what was up with the meat or how it was stored but the burger was really quite bad. Starters were garlic bread and bruscetta which are hard to get wrong and the single dessert we had was chocolate fondant which was amazing, although we waited AGES for someone to take the dessert order. On the online booking we mentioned the occasion was my daughter's birthday. When we sat down at our table the maitre d asked us if it was a special occasion, and we mentioned it again. Despite other tables being made a bit of a fuss over with birthdays, we got nothing at all and the maitre d, who was nice to us at first never looked at us again all night. I feel like the friendly intro was a tick box exercise. This took the shine off our night unfortunately and my daughter was a bit ☹️. When you go to a genuine Italian restaurant the manager ALWAYS tours the tables to meet/greet and make sure everything is ok, regardless of how busy it might be. It's a personal touch that Gino's lacks. It was all business, all night. Finally, at the back of the restaurant there's a long table for large parties. When we got there the party had already left. That table stayed uncleared all night with dirty plates and glasses that no one bothered to move. It was still like that when we left. What is that about Gino's?? While we had a mostly good meal I'm not sure we'd go back. This isn't a cheap restaurant and there are cheaper alternatives in Newcastle with equally good food. And they ignored our special occasion and to leave a table in that state for over 2 hours doesn't give a great impression - it wasn't THAT...

We just walked away after being extremely disappointed with our experience at Gino D’Acampo restaurant, especially as we had booked in advance to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary.

Upon arrival, we asked the waitress if we could sit outside and enjoy the beautiful view of the Tyne River. Several riverfront tables were completely empty, with no reservation signs, but we were told by the young blonde mid twenties waitress we couldn't sit there because they were meant for parties of four. A few minutes later, to our surprise, a couple walked in without a reservation and were promptly seated at one of the front-row river view tables we had just been denied. A different waitress attended to them, clearly showing inconsistency in how customers are treated.

What made this even more upsetting is that this was a rare evening out for us. As parents to a one-month-old and a four-year-old, it took real effort to arrange childcare and plan a special evening together. To be met with such poor customer service and a lack of consideration for our pre-booked celebration was incredibly disappointing.

It's really unfortunate that a special occasion was dampened by a staff member's lack of customer care and basic judgment. Giving priority seating to walk-ins over guests with a reservation for a meaningful occasion shows a real disconnect in service values. We ended up walking away and will not be returning. We're a cabin crew and a pilot who have been eating in many places around the world and we had high expectations from this restaurant but we definitely won't be recommending Gino D'acampo in Newcastle.

Gino, ti auguro che per il tuo ristorante Luciano by Gino D’Acampo a Malta troverai personale più amichevole e gentile che sappia come trattare i clienti. Noi di sicuro non torneremo più nel tuo ristorante di Newcastle. Il modo in cui ci ha trattato la hostess spiega perché il...